Handle This! A handle-making workshop with Delanie Wise

There must be hundreds of ways to create clay handles. Handles are not just for mugs, pitchers and teapots; handles can also be added to trays, bowls, serving dishes, and vases. The possibilities are endless! In this workshop, we will think and talk critically about how handles work both functionally and aesthetically, and we’ll refine our handle-making skills.

In the first session, instructor Delanie Wise will bring in many examples of different handles. Participants are invited to bring in samples of handles they admire. Delanie will demonstrate her many different handle-making techniques and then we will all practice making handles.

In the second session, participants will bring their in-progress clay pieces and decide and make handles for those pieces.

Registration for this workshop is limited to those registered for a Fall 2024 course at the Ceramics Program, Office to the Arts at Harvard. Cost: $200 for those enrolled in the Fall 2024 term; FREE for Harvard College Undergraduates. Registration for this workshop will open on Wednesday, August 21 at 10:00am. A link to register for this workshop will be sent by email to those enrolled in a Fall 2024 course.

Materials/what to bring:

• Notebook
• Apron
• basic pottery tools (rib, needle tool, fettling knife, or other small tools you like to use)
• optional: examples of handles that you admire (photos or objects)
• for the second meeting, participants will bring mid-process work (to be discussed in the first session)

Delanie Wise Artist Bio

BS, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. Potter, ceramic artist and long-time studio member and instructor at the Harvard Ceramics Program. An Associate Member of Boston Sculptors Gallery, Wise shows nationally and has won awards including 2017 John Ground Purchase Award, Strictly Functional National; 2018 and 2022 First Place Sculpture, Winter Juried Show, Duxbury, MA; 2022 Honorable Mention, The Danforth Annual Juried Exhibition, Framingham, MA. Wise focuses on hand built and thrown forms then takes these forms, cuts them up and reassembles them in unexpected ways.